BATTLE GAMES http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070208/asp/opinion/story_7362756.asp
Games should make more sense to people anywhere than guns and grenades. In Assam, however, the forthcoming National Games were not to be just big-time entertainment. For the terror-struck state, the event could have been a matter of life and death. The cloud over the event has melted following the assurance by the United Liberation Front of Asom that it would not "interfere" with it. The chief minister, Mr Tarun Gogoi, can justifiably feel somewhat relaxed. But he needs to look beyond the games and think of a strategy to tackle the Ulfa's challenge. It would be naïve to see the militants' assurance as a sign of a change of heart. By promising not to disrupt the games, they are obviously hoping to win back some popular support for their movement. The Ulfa's capacity to blast bombs and kill people is no measure of its popularity among the common Assamese. If there were any doubts on this score, a recent survey of public opinion on the Ulfa has decidedly removed them. Militants in the North-east are known to step up their violence in order to make up for receding public support. The other motive behind the Ulfa's conciliatory move should also be pretty obvious. It wants New Delhi and Dispur to respond to the gesture by suspending the counter-insurgency operations and resuming the stalled peace process. Dialogue and persuasion must eventually play the bigger role in resolving the crisis in Assam. But the Ulfa is largely to blame for the failure of the last round of peace talks. And once the talks failed, it made things far worse by triggering another spell of senseless violence. It would, therefore, be a mistake for the government to suspend the army's operations in Assam. Such a strategy failed during the "temporary ceasefire" last year, and may fail again if the Ulfa's motives are not properly understood. The insurgents must not be given the impression that they can blackmail the state with blood and terror. Neither the Centre nor the state government can afford to think of a purely military or administrative answer to the Assamese militancy. As with the Naga insurgency, the ultimate solution in Assam has to be political. But, unlike the leaders of the Naga movement, the Assamese rebels have shown little interest in a political resolution of the conflict. Terror, to them, has become its own justification. It is worse than a battle of attrition; the Ulfa's game is clearly a betrayal of the people's hope for peace.
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